Mama and Papa and the twins make three
by Maimakterion
Summary: Challenge fic "The children of X and Y are raised by Z, Crossover". Z was Ranma all along, X and Y were decided after a too long session in the soul crushingly depressing pool on danbooru. Rating may go up if i decide to work in the original scene 1.
1. Mama and Papa

Disclaimer - I own none of the characters or settings used here. This work is fictional. This is a non-profit fan work.

A/N: This one is a challenge fic from Thrythlind. "The children of X and Y raised by Z, crossover". My X and Y are Malice and Z is Ranma. Im bouncing Ranma ideas off Thrythlind and theoretically Touhou ideas off GaleBread, although he hasnt got back to me yet.

* * *

><p>"Hey 'Kane, I'm heading out … um … wanna come?" Ranma's call was boisterous, but rapidly became uncertain as his offer approached. He knew, both instinctively and from hard experience that their current problem wouldn't be solved until one of them worked up the nerve to put the other on the spot. He also knew quite well that their fathers would make matters worse in some way once they realised he and Akane's tense interaction had nothing to do with their relationship going unusually well or a prospective cure. Actually he suspected they would be on hand making things worse whenever they got bored at least until Akane was pregnant.<p>

"To look for …? Um … no … I think I should stay here and help Kasumi today. Um … Tell me if you find anything?" If anything Akane was _more_ nervous about their current disagreement than Ranma was.

Ranma nodded stiffly as he left, but Akane had looked away so she wouldn't have to see the tension between them. Once out on the street Ranma let loose a sigh, in the battle against Safron they had killed and died for one another, but a year later she couldn't decide if they should live together when they left for collage. Ranma found he didn't mind either way, if she would take him it would be a great comfort to share a room with her, both from a rent perspective and because it would be sharing with … well … _her_, the woman he killed for. But if she couldn't stand the idea of living together yet and preferred they lived apart then he understood, after all he had a bit of trauma from their parents to work out too.

But her indecision meant that he would be wasting another day in long boring inspections of inner city apartments because everything he saw today would likely be taken by the time he found out for sure whether he should be looking for a place that would fit them both or a place he could afford alone.

Ugh, collage. That was one more headache, not because he didn't want to go, or because he couldn't decide. In fact his enrolment was already finalised. He would start full time when the new school year came around and he was actually looking forward to it. He was accepted into a genuine masters degree in education. Knowing he was that good was a private relief and pride for Ranma, since the law would not allow him to set up a formal dojo without at least a coaching qualification and he wouldn't allow himself to be merely the bare minimum in anything.

A chance comment from Kasumi had pulled his mother right onto his side in this case, and even now she gushed about her manly son already achieving something his father could not. His father and Happosai, as well as Akane's father when he could be dragooned into the argument, were the true source of pain here, each insisting that a mere degree from a 'civilian' authority meant nothing but a waste of his time and that he would be ready to teach the art whenever a true master granted him the authority (each had different ideas as to who had the right to be granting that permission of course) as well as a slew of more petty excuses to keep the pair under the Tendo roof and under their watchful eyes.

Ranma couldn't help but smile at his next thought though. Akane was enrolled in a drama degree at the same campus, so it's not like they would be far from one another. Maybe they could get single apartments to allow for alone time given they would be in the same place all day too. Or perhaps he could take on some more work and afford an apartment large enough for two if she decided to live together and just live there alone if she would prefer to be apart at times.

Significantly cheered Ranma set out to get some rental inspections in before he had to head to work that afternoon.

* * *

><p>Ranma bowed with no small respect to master Misono, there was a lot of gratitude in there as well. It was fair to say all of Ranma's plans to escape the Tendo house relied on the old master. The pay wasn't extraordinary, 'Ranko' was heading out to the waitressing job he needed to make ends meet right after the last lesson, but the fathers didn't need to know that. Master Misono was a very rare find, a master martial artist who Happosai couldn't help but acknowledge, without being an ancient pervert like the old troll himself. With that they couldn't just pull him back claiming it is unfitting for him to teach at some lesser dojo, and teaching Misono ryu, at the grand master's request no less, rather than musabetsu kakutou silenced any protest they made about him not being an official master.<p>

They had no true right to stop him anyway. Master Misono's patronage simply insured they wouldn't ignore that fact and make an attempt anyway. But Misono ryu, like musabetsu kakutou, was a martial art, not one of the martial sports that was currently popular, and the dojo saw nearly as few students as the Tendo's. So more often than not Ranma took his wages in free lessons and the protection offered from the fathers. Dumping the last of his water bottle over his head rather than drink it, Ranma walked out of the back alley he had ducked through as a shortcut as a young woman with a figure that was even harder to believe was Japanese than her bright red hair.

Ranko worked at a bar in the arcade opposite a train station, and it was her ability to work both waitress and bouncer jobs at the same time (admittedly for only three quarters the pay of each) that allowed the martial artist the sort of funding he needed to move out and attend a collage in another district.

As far as the other waitstaff and barman were concerned 'Ranko' was a junior master at a local dojo, free of charge as a favour to a family friend. None of them knew which dojo of course, he couldn't risk them turning up and seeing him rather than her, but none of the other staff doubted her qualifications after she mopped the floor with an armed robber the day before she was offered the job. The fact that she was also drop dead gorgeous and could apparently still outfight a dozen men while waiting tables was just icing on the cake.

"Yo Hide, whats up? Sorry I'm late, the dan level class ran overtime tonight,"

The barman looked up from the table he was polishing for the barest moment to cock a disbelieving eyebrow, "Riiight, I can tell by the way you aren't the slightest bit winded and your hair isn't even messed up,"

"Perks of being the master, all I have to do is say 'Some of you have been letting your personal training slip, so tonight we review the basics', it's the students who have to do the sweating and mussed hair thing,"

"Whatever," this time Hide didn't even look up, "'Late' or not, you're still here half an hour before the rest of the waitstaff,"

"Yeah well as a bouncer I _am_ supposed to be on site as soon as you unlock the front door, whether you hang the open sign or not," Ranma was halfway through the bar now, on her way to the employee lockers and the shower therein.

Hide wouldn't let her bouncer comment pass however, having been off roster the night Ranma's prowess was demonstrated he still doubted that such a small girl could be effective security staff, "Just go shower so you don't stink up the place and make sure you don't distract the kitchen staff while you loiter about waiting for the other waitresses to show,"

As she dismissed his comment out of hand and kept wandering however Hide's head snapped up, "Actually, once you're clean, why don't you go grab the creepy twins out of the kitchen and keep them out of the way too?"

That stopped Ranma short and she actually turned back to ask, "Creepy twins?"

"Pair of girls Tooru found and is trying to feed. He claims they were in the store already when he opened up for the day, but it's pretty obvious he just found some homeless kids and wasn't heartless enough to turn them down. I figure he'll have gotten some food into them by then and you can sneak them off without triggering his soft heart again,"

"Huh, okay," Ranma just waved and headed for the shower, privately thinking that he probably wouldn't have the heart to throw a pair of kids onto the street either.

* * *

><p>Entering the kitchen, a freshly washed Ranma exchanged pleasant waves with her coworkers, before glancing at a small table in the corner, out of the way of the staff preparing for another night catering for the usual mix of informal business dinners, drinking snacks and late night grilled food the bar offered. A pair of tiny girls were seated there, slumped slightly listlessly. They were truly tiny, they probably wouldn't stand even to waist height on someone as short as Ranma's female form. Despite their lack of interest in the variety of tapas and more traditional Japanese drinking snacks spread before them, and their fairly healthy faces and builds, they gave the impression of being starved to near death somehow.<p>

The girls were perhaps eight or ten, clearly twins, they were identical as far as Ranma could tell, the only readily apparent difference was their clothing. While both wore their hair in the same style, a long fall to their mid-back held out of their eyes by a red ribbon, the closer one wore her ribbon in a wide bow at the back of her head while the one on the other side of the table wore hers atop her head, giving a bunny eared impression. Their dresses were identical in cut, frilled monstrosities in the popular gothic lolita style, the closer with blue trimmed in white frills and red ribbons and the bunny eared one in red with white frills and blue ribbons at her wrists and throat.

"Hey Tooru, whats the story?" Ranma gestured to the slumped twins.

"Aah! Ranko!" Tooru's eyes lit up when Ranma came in, as always. Tooru, the head chef, was actually the son of the bar's owners and pulled double duty as manager while they dealt with other businesses they owned deeper into Tokyo proper. Ranma privately suspected this was at least in part a test for the soft hearted young man. He also suspected the chef was deeply smitten with his female form, but as long as it didn't interfere with work and he stayed … non-Kuno … about it Ranma needed the jobs too much to really complain, "They teleported in when I was opening the shop. They seem really hungry but I cant get them to eat, so I think they need some magic food,"

Tooru was also born and raised in Juuban district, which meant he thought of things most people considered 'strange' as merely 'uncommon'. Frustratingly upon hearing Ranko came from Nerima he naturally assumed she was of similar position and he didn't hesitate to announce such theories to her. Even when people he was usually too shy to mention them to were openly listening.

Having avoided even a little bit of the Nerima martial arts weirdness in her workplace so far Ranma just smiled indulgently and played dumb, "Sure thing Tooru, lets get them some magic food then …"

With a faintly humorous smile for the benefit of her other coworkers, that she didn't really feel in the face of her slightly worried apprehension that this could at last be the infiltration of her new life by her old one, she grabbed a spare seat and spun it over to sit with the two girls.

Or at least she tried to. As she passed into arms reach of the pair she felt it. A huge drain, like Ninomiya sensei on a bad day, but the energy being ripped from her wasn't ki. It felt a little like the ghoul's splitting cat's hairs technique and whatever she used to animate that ice statue to attack during the phoenix pill race. It also felt a LOT like her curse activating. A moment of panic filled her as she fell sideways off the chair and the world went black.

* * *

><p>Ranma's first panicked thought on waking was that everyone must have seen her transform and now she was going to have to look for a new job, or at least get badly beaten for using the female change rooms. When a blind grope of her own chest revealed that she was still a she, thoughts moving faster than they normally could ever achieve outside of a duel or Neriman 'incident' insisted she had felt her curse activate and the fact she was still a she meant she must be locked again.<p>

Fortunately panic was leaving her now and she was able to avoid dashing off to use the employee showers to test that. Whether she was locked or not, running off to check right now would just make things more suspicious, so she would wait until her shift was over to discover her fate.

Sufficiently calmed Ranma checked her surroundings and was surprised to find that she must have been out at least an hour, judging by the sounds from the bar and the fact that the kitchen staff were only glancing over to check on her between rushed duties, rather than all gathered round like they would be if she had woken up after just a few minutes. With a start Ranma realised there was a weight on her lap, that she had apparently been sleeping seated on the sofa kitchen staff used on their breaks rather than the chair she had been sitting on when she fainted. The weight on her lap turned out to be a pair of little girls and she found herself stroking their hair before she remembered just why she had passed out and why she should be wary of them.

"Ahh you're up," His tasks finally at a point where he could take a few minutes off to check up on her, Tooru came to sit opposite her in an arm chair, "So … what's really going on?"

That took Ranma somewhat aback, "What? I'm the one who just spent, apparently a few hours, unconscious. I was kinda hoping you could tell me what's up,"

Tooru looked at Ranma speculatively, "You know you cant hide your magic from me forever. I _know_ you aren't just another normal person. I can see it, like when you said you were going to give them some magic food I _saw_ the energy leap out of you and into them. After you passed out they started calling you mama and they ate the food we gave them like normal kids. Now everyone else, even the other people who saw you feed them, thinks they're really your kids and they're just here because you're having a tough week and you cant get someone to take care of them while you work today, even though there is clearly no way you're old enough to be their mother. They think you passed out from all the extra work you've had today having to keep an eye on them at both of your jobs,"

"Mama?" the girl in red stirred gently, rubbing against Ranma's caressing hand before trying sleepily to sit up.

Unthinking Ranma just smiled down at her and gave her hair one last tousle, "Shh Hourai, go back to sleep, it's been a big day," even as Ranma froze in terror at the realisation he should definitely not have known that name, the girl, Hourai, nodded absently and pulled the hand off her head before curling up, back in Ranma's lap, with the hand now clutched to her chest in both of her own tiny hands.

Tooru's triumphant grin said everything about his own thoughts on the situation, she couldn't deny being a witch now and she may as well give in and tell him all about the magic that had always fascinated him. What actually came in reply was a dull thud as a rolled up newspaper slammed into the back of his head.

"Just make sure she's ok to travel and tell her she's to go home for the night," Kanade, the one assistant chef who simply wouldn't tolerate Tooru's unprofessional behaviour, looks out from behind his cringing form, "If you're well enough to work tomorrow feel free to bring them in and let us watch over them in here while you take your shift, they've been perfect angels tonight. But if your workload is that bad you should definitely take time off to arrange someone else to watch over them after school until your shift is over. We all understand it can sometimes be a bit much … well except Tooru obviously,"

As she made to smack him once more and he scrambled away, Ranma found herself smiling gratefully, "I think I will have a quick shower and do that Kana'. You guys will be ok without me for the night?"

"Che," the feisty older girl smirked even as she pretended to be disgusted, "Even if they aren't as good at it as you we do still have bouncers you know, get going,"

With disturbing familiarity for a motion she had never made before, Ranma shifted the girls so that she had one sitting on each hip, with their heads resting on her shoulders and made quiet soothing sounds. Even as she smiled gratefully and made her way to the change rooms her mind moved a million miles a minute trying to grasp the direction of the latest insanity to enter her life.

* * *

><p>The girls stirred awake again when she set them down on the bench in the change room, but were content to sit quietly while their mama had her shower and changed to take them home. Ranma was, by now, quite comfortable with taking a cold shower in the women's change room with other girls present, but the urge to let a little hot water flow and find out whether she was locked was strong and at war with the awkwardness of the thought of two little girls who called her 'mama' seeing her turn into a man.<p>

In the end she gave in and splashed her face with a handful of hot water from the sink. He was pleasantly surprised over all to find himself male, despite the strange feeling of suddenly being male in his frilly waitressing uniform. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the girls gave him only the faintest interested glance before going back to whatever quiet game they were playing while they tried to stay awake while he had his shower.

A quick splash of cold turned him back into her before she slipped out of her uniform. The shower was cold too of course, she would have to remain female until she was at least a few blocks from the bar after all. The pair of girls sitting nearby didn't bother her shower at all, even though there wasn't even a curtain separating her from view, it was almost exactly like bathing in mountain streams with her father back before they were cursed.

Wrinkling her nose slightly and her now quite foul red Chinese silks, she slipped on the spare white set she had packed for after training and pulled a thermos from the bag as well.

On filling it for the walk home she clapped her hands, "Ok girls, lets head home,"

* * *

><p>The girls were getting increasingly irritable as Ranma lead them back to the Tendo dojo. He was again surprised by knowledge he shouldn't have when he realised he had already chalked it up to them getting tired and needing sleep. In the end however he just gave up on that line of thought, <em>At least whatever weirdness I'm in for now seems to include instructions.<em>

Halfway home he had fished out the thermos and turned male again. Just like the first time the girls didn't so much as blink, although now they called him papa, rather than mama, which was probably a good thing too. About that point he had also picked the drowsy girls up, again one on each hip, and let them doze off on his shoulders.

He nudged the door to the Tendo dojo open with his foot and saw almost everyone gathered in the entryway, the fathers obviously on their way out drinking, Nabiki just tightening her shoes to head out on some inscrutable errand of her own, with Akane helping Kasumi handle a huge laundry basket down the adjoining hallway.

Suddenly Ranma realised that whatever knowledge had been shoved into his head regarding the girls was a trap of its own. Armed with that knowledge he had felt fairly relaxed and confident. Because of that he hadn't given a single thought to how he would explain the latest drama to everyone else the whole way home.

Then, as one, the tiny girls stirred from their slumber and murmured confusedly, what was probably the worst word they could have come up with, "Papa?"


	2. Love and war

Akane's fist was on the move instantly. If Ranma's personal introspection ever passed beyond turning his skilled martial assessment on his own techniques he would, perhaps, realise that this very scene, repeated daily, was the main reason Akane continued to fascinate him. In his hyperfast perception he could see may things in minute detail; the way Kasumi would just barely manage to catch the large basket with Akane having dropped her side; the way mister Tendo's lack of training in recent years left him rusty, the only one present not already at least aware of Akane's attack; the way his own father's assessment was still lightning fast, and the way he had already dismissed the attack as 'weak' and 'womanly'; even the way Nabiki's solid intellect and experience got her out of the way of ground zero before she was necessarily conscious of the attack.

But Akane was the true sight, her eyes were closed and she was already screaming the word pervert. She obviously hadn't registered that she was lashing out yet, but the punch was dead accurate, screaming toward his face. Even the force and angle were perfect, it would rattle his head and perhaps knock him a step back, but there was no danger of him dropping and hurting the girls the way he would if she just unloaded and sent him flying. Even as he bemusedly tried to figure out how much of her excellent control and attack placement could really just be instinct he shifted the ki in his face from idle defence to healing, ready to humour her and take his lumps.

Then he felt it again, that splitting cat hairs technique crossed with curse activating energy drain. Suddenly his body was moving on instinct as well, raising a hand, palm out toward Akane and sucking in enough air to shout, even as his conscious mind noted his hands were no longer full of sleeping little girls.

"War sign …"

"Love sign …"

"STOP!"

Somehow fortune favoured Ranma for once and her panicked scream brought both the twins and Akane to a halt. For a long moment no one moved, taking in the strange tableaux they made up. Akane was frozen mid punch, her fist inches from Ranma's nose. One tiny blonde, this one in fairytale red, was standing between them; her hand was reaching up to touch Akane's stomach, which was actually a little above her head height, and was glowing like a mouko takabisha rendered in all the colours of the rainbow. The other, in pale blue, had her back pressed to Ranma's knees and her arms spread wide; each splayed finger bore a ring with a glowing red thread attached, each thread was taut and lead to a doll, no larger than an adult handspan and clothed finely, each in a different nation's traditional dress rendered in minute detail. They were also each armed, two with bows, one a longbow and the other a crossbow, the rest held an assortment of blades, ranging from a tiny halberd that could almost be a real sized open razor to swords, shields and axes.

Amid the stunned silence Ranma very carefully leaned around Akane's frozen fist and wrapped her own hand around the tiny one holding the quite potent looking energy blast, gently entwining their fingers before closing them and banishing the light. As a lot of the tension flooded out of the room with the banishing of one strange threat Ranma put her arms around the girls' shoulders and began to whisper quiet, calming reassurances in their ears. After a few seconds the girl in blue relaxed and the tiny army vanished into something that felt a bit like the amazon hidden weapons technique, but not very much like it.

* * *

><p>Amid the ranting and screaming and demands for explanations Ranma found she couldn't actually get a word in edgewise, so she instead murmured calming nothings to the agitated girls in her lap and tried to keep them from panicking and doing … whatever they did again.<p>

That situation continued, between being ranted at by 'concerned' fathers, accused of any number of things by Akane, very carefully considered and questioned by Nabiki, and alternately ignored completely while the other dojo residents made up their own facts and discussed those. Ultimately Kasumi had time to contact his mother, collect her from the Saotome home and escort her to the dojo without Ranma getting so much as a sentence heard over the din.

Once Nodoka arrived, however, rants and arguments and accusations were all strangled in minutes by her stern presence. The sudden quiet finally calmed the girls and from Ranma's left the blue clad twin curled up and rested her head on the martial artist's thigh, the other sister wormed her way under Ranma's right arm and snuggled up to her. By instinct or simple warm sentiment Ranma smiled and began to gently stroke their heads. Then Nodoka asked what she considered the most pertinent of possible questions.

"Son, why are you wearing your unmanly cursed form when it is clearly not raining and hot water is only as far away as the next room?"

Ranma and Genma both froze as though locked in stone, Genma was eminently aware that his wife's acceptance of the curse was tenuous at best already while Ranma was simply shocked to find that he was, in fact, a she.

Akane, on the other hand, leapt on the chance to launch her accusations, "They're evil spirits or something! He turned into a girl without water or anything when they attacked me in the hallway!"

Ranma took a moment to consider that, he'd felt them drink his energy, whatever energy it actually was, at work but he hadn't turned back into a man, but when they'd done it again while he already was a man he transformed. Meanwhile he found his hands stroking one fewer head as the sister in red leapt up and pointed at Akane, pouting an absolutely adorable indignation.

"We are _not_ evil spirits, you take that back!"

"Yeah? Well explain your curse dolls then!"

With an indignant foot stamp the girl folded her arms and pouted harder, "There were no curse dolls there. It was mostly chalk white, with some foggy and benevolent dolls thrown in. The only curse dolls were Shanghai and Hourai, and Mama turned us into people so you're not allowed to be mean and call us dolls anymore!"

The twin in blue sat up and wiggled across Ranma's lap, reaching out to tug softly at her sister's sleeve, but she was ignored by all, except Ranma who wrapped both hands around her waist, in the face of the flaring argument.

"So you two _are _a curse and you're locking Ranma!"

"You cant call us a curse anymore! Mama made us into people!"

Once again Nodoka's voice was like a perfectly reasonable knife cutting through the rowdy atmosphere, "Why don't you start from the start dear. What are you?"

"We're people," this time the pout seemed less angry and closer to tears.

Nodoka's voice was smooth and calming now, finding her stride and coaxing information from her subject, "But you used to be a doll?"

For the first time the sister in blue spoke up, no longer tugging on her sister's sleeve, but still holding it from where she sat in Ranma's lap, "We used to be LOTS of dolls,"

"Yeah!" the sister in red was triumphant now, one hand thrust in the air, "Mama is a sorceress. We used to be her strongest battle spell cards before she mastered her magic and made us into people!"

"Really? You were a battle spell," Nodoka was calmly probing, the way Kasumi might draw information with her kind words and pleasant manner, but more directed.

"Yep!" one tiny hand thumped proudly into an equally tiny chest, "I used to be called 'Curse sign [Hanged Hourai Dolls]',"

With a kind smile and a little prodding the quieter sister spoke up as well, "… Eerily luminous Shanghai Dolls."

"I see, I see. And how did you become human?"

"Mama and Mama wanted to have kids, but they are both sorceresses so they couldn't be a Papa. But Mama was always working on magic to make dolls like real people so she took all the built up experience from aaaaallll," as the tiny girl made a broad gesture to emphasise how many dolls were included in 'aaaaaallll', "the Hourai and Shanghai dolls into Mama's spell reactor. Then they both put in sooooo much magic, and when they were done Mama said we don't have to be dolls anymore and Mama said that I could be just Hourai and Shanghai can be just Shanghai!"

"So you have two mothers and you call them both Mama?" Nabiki's tone was actually slightly detectably frustrated, "How are we supposed to tell which one you're talking about?"

Hourai blinked adorably for several seconds before giggling into her hand, "Don't be silly, of course I know which Mama I mean,"

Nabiki's growl was simply talked over by Nodoka, "So if you have parents already, why are you attaching yourself to my son?"

Hourai went dead silent for several seconds, before turning to face Ranma and hiding her face in her shoulder. It was Shanghai who spoke up.

"When the Hakurei got old she didn't pick a new Hakurei. Then she died and the gods at the mountain wanted their priestess to be the new Hakurei but miss Yukari said they cant. So all the youkai on the mountain fought with the humans from the village and the youkai from the bamboo forest and Mayohiga. Then Mama had to go fight too. And after that, Mama went after her. Then miss Yukari came and said that without our Mamas to protect us it would be too dangerous, so she gave me Mama's little legion and gave Mama's reactor to Hourai and sent us out here,"

Apparently recovered by her sister's sombre tone, Hourai turned back around and continued the story in a much more upbeat voice, "When we came we started to die because there isn't any magic in the air here!" from her tone near death was something exciting and thrilling but not very scary, at least now it was over, "Then when we were starving and falling down Mama came and sat at the table with us and gave us some of her very own magic!"

"Then why did you turn Ranma into a girl when you attacked me!" Although the words formed a question the tone was clear accusation as it leapt from Akane's lips.

"Hmph," Hourai snorted at Akane in clear dislike, "When you were gonna hit Papa we had to use lots of magic to make you not hit him. It's just Papa doesn't have much magic, but Mama has LOTS. So when we used our spell cards Papa turned into Mama so she would have enough magic," the tiny blonde planted her fists on her hips, clearly under the impression she had made a point even Akane couldn't be obtuse enough to argue with.

Everyone else at the table, of course, found that explanation to be near incomprehensible, and took several minutes to put together what they had learned and reach the conclusion. Nabiki got there first, but held her reaction to an amused smirk.

It was Nodoka who broke the silence, "You are saying you require my son to remain in female form,"

"As long as the mean one doesn't attack us and make us use all our magic then we only need Papa to turn into Mama sometimes for us to be full. AND miss Yukari said that when we are grown ups we will be able to make our own magic!"

"Then it's settled! Come boy, pack your things!" Genma spoke loudly and authoritatively, as always, with his usual deluded confidence, "You needed a good training trip already to get all this 'collage' stuff out of your head anyway. If we can cure you and get rid of these magic eaters that's three birds with one stone," Genma's hand was on Ranma's shoulder, already attempting to tug her to her feet.

"You shall do no such thing," Ranma knew from experience that his mother's voice could be like a whipcrack or silken smooth, but right then Nodoka's voice was like a perfect blade being drawn, "To leave two little girls to die for the sake of your own pride is possibly the most unmanly thing I have ever heard suggested Genma Saotome!" then the edge in her voice was joined by the slow creep of genuine naked steel as she popped the first few inches of the family honour blade clear of it's sheathe.

"Thank you mother," Ranma's relief was so palpable as she slumped in place that she actually received enough confused glances to merit an explanation. With a deeply embarrassed blush Ranma continued, slapping Genma's hand away as well, "I fight the old man a lot, so I'm fine with that. But if you ordered me to do something that might kill someone who wasn't doing me any wrong and probably couldn't fight back … I'd fight against you too, and I don't think I'd be fine with that …"

"But you would still do it?" Nodoka pushed hesitantly, and watched as Ranma slowly nodded.

With a squeal of delight Nodoka was across the room, gathering the confused form of her, currently female, son in her arms, "Excellent! At least as manly as your father or Soun before Happosai took away their sense of honour!"

"Auntie Saotome? He just suggested doing violence to you …"

"Of course he did Nabiki, it was wonderful. For a man what is right must be more important that what is nice,"

* * *

><p>"So how were the apartments today? Did you find one you liked?" Ranma was the only one not picking up on it, but Akane was still quite sullen over the presence of Shanghai and Hourai, although the fact Ranma had put them to bed and returned to male form after dinner had brought her irritation down considerably.<p>

"Nothin' really. Have to start looking at bigger places anyway now, maybe even a full on house,"

Nabiki winced from her own seat across the lounge room. Every reminder that they were already adjusting their plans to account for twin girls sent a shock of barely suppressed rage through Akane's face and Ranma never even noticed. But Akane just swallowed it this time and continued as though she hadn't even thought of them.

"Ranma, even if I do decide to move in with you _and_ I manage to get a job that pays like yours does, we cant afford the rent on an actual house in Minato ward,"

Ranma actually slumped a little himself at that, whether it was because she hadn't decided whether they would live together or because of his reply Nabiki honestly couldn't tell, "I know … I'm gonna have to just give up and take mum's offer to help us. I'll need her help to get the girls into a school now anyway so I figure the best option is to just keep a good track of what she gives me and pay it all back once I'm running my own dojo,"

For a moment the kind Akane who fed wild animals and was recognised by the neko ken as a nice lap to sleep in struggled against the Akane who frequently violently and jealously defended her position as Ranma's fiancé. Fiancé Akane won out and she would eventually regret her harsh tone, "Why cant they just feed on someone else's curse? We could leave them with your mother, she already has a big enough house and she can just turn your dad into a panda every day so they'll have plenty of magic!"

This time Ranma's groan was one of long suffering and the first hints of his own stubborn streak coming into play, "We don't know it's the curse they get magic from 'kane, you know that. Maybe the girl who drowned in Nyaniichuan just had a lot of magic, like how rouge can use magic when she transforms because of the Asura, but hasn't got any power in human form. They didn't get any magic from the old man when I knocked him in the pond. The only people we know for sure have enough magic to feed them are my girl form and the old ghoul, and I'm just NOT gonna risk them with the amazons,"

Mentally flinching away from the obviously selfish spectacle she was making of herself, Akane switched gears to another ongoing argument between the two, "If you stopped putting so much into savings for your stupid dojo idea we could probably afford to do it ourselves,"

Nabiki nearly groaned aloud. As much as they thought they were keeping it private for now, Nabiki, Kasumi and even Nodoka had overheard the argument at least a handful of times each, only the fathers and Happosai remained unaware. Ranma wanted to gather the funds and build his own dojo in his own name, to finally get out from under the thumbs of their fathers and escape Happosai's obsessive control of the musabetsu kakutou ryu by possessing a dojo that neither of them have claim on and teaching his own style that the old pervert couldn't simply deny him mastery of. Akane, on the other hand, was deathly afraid of anything she saw as separating her from Ranma, never mind that she had died for him and he had killed or her less than half a year ago, her paranoia still insisted that he would drop her like a stone if he no longer needed the Tendo dojo as her dowry.

Although Nabiki could clearly see both of their reasons and worries, neither of them could understand the other, nor were they willing to simply tell each other what they were thinking. Nabiki just got up and left the room, with the fathers out drinking their sorrows away since slightly before the after dinner clean up there was no need for her to distract them so the lovers could keep their quarrel under wraps. Besides, pattern indicated that they would be stalking off to separate beds in sullen silence any minute now and Nabiki would need her sleep too if she ever intended to make good on her plan to use her sister's leaving home and the start of her second year at collage to escape the family home herself. She only paused a moment this time to hold down her feeling of guilt at leaving Kasumi as their father's sole carer.

* * *

><p>Genma held up one hand and dismissed Ranma with a phrase, "Good, go see to the other part of your morning training boy,"<p>

Ranma was momentarily puzzled, Genma had never cut off morning training without someone scoring a telling blow before and certainly not before someone was knocked in the pond ever since they came to the Tendo's place. Not that he couldn't see what the panda was talking about, even the, sometimes legendarily, dense Ranma picked up a clue some days.

But whether the allowance for Ranma's desire to train his daughters – his mind had nearly dislocated the first time his mother had used the term to describe his relationship with Shanghai and Hourai, now he was nearly just as bothered by the speed he was becoming accustomed to it – came from the _words_ Nodoka had pulled the old man aside for last night, the chilling realisation that Ranma's loss rate in morning sparing was down past one in ten and dropping ever since Saffron or even honest fatherly sentiment the pigtailed boy would never know. Instead of analysing it on the chance that he might be able to stimulate this kind of behaviour in future, Ranma decided to make use of it as much as possible before Genma came to his 'senses'.

Trotting into the dining room he found his girls – see? Didn't even flinch that time. Hourai was busily carrying plates for Kasumi, milking the domestic Tendo sister for every kind word and smile, and beaming with greater and greater pride when she got them. Shangai was staring, very intently, at the cover of the magazine Nabiki was trying to read; so intently Ranma could tell the middle Tendo was actually unnerved and was reading the same paragraph for what must have been the dozenth time that morning.

"Hey Nabs, morning," Nabiki just gave a slightly disgruntled nod, which Ranma very carefully failed to laugh at, "how much longer for breakfast Kas?"

"I'm sure I can have it on the table by quarter to eight Ranma," Kasumi giggled slightly maternally as both girls broke off their current activities to come over and latch onto Ranma, now that he was no longer engaged in active sparing, "Although if I lose my assistant that may get pushed to ten to,"

Ranma smiled naturally as he ruffled their hair, earning matching pouts as they rearranged their bows, "Well we may have to risk that delay," His smile to Kasumi was truly apologetic, the one Tendo he felt bad about inconveniencing, "Come on girls, let's head over to the dojo,"

Ranma had rehearsed this speech in his mind for a lot of the night before, so naturally he could barely remember half the ideas he wanted to put into words, "So, you don't have to do this if you don't want, if it ever really gets so you don't want to do it; not like givin' up because it's hard or nothin', you'll need to learn to keep working on hard things somehow, but if its ever really something you don't want to do, just say and I wont make you keep doing it," Amid that fumbling Ranma suddenly realised he hadn't actually mentioned the subject yet, although the girls were nodding attentatively and taking his words seriously, "Marial arts I mean. The art is real important to me, and to pops … um … grandpa Saotome I guess. From your stories last night I guess magic was pretty important to your mamas right?" Both girls nodded vigorously, "So it's like that, um, so please give this a serious try?"

"Of course we wanna be like you papa!" Shanghai leapt up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burbling warm reassurances.

The, heretofore, louder Hourai remained in a disciplined seated position facing him and spoke with much more gravity, "Mama always made it clear that studying magic was going to be hard and sometimes we would hate it. But," Hourai actually blushed and looked at the floor, "papa loves martial arts like mama and mama loved magic. I think I only want to do something that is that wonderful…"

Ranma just smiled happily, relieved that it had apparently gone well, "Ok then, since we don't have long today before Kasumi's yummy breakfast is ready, today will just be a quick warm up to see how fit you are and where I should start. Then we'll go have a bath and come down for breakfast nice and clean. After breakfast we'll have a quick play around to see what you can do with the magic you've already learned from your mamas and maybe see about a way you can keep learning that here. Er … looks like we've got a big day today then, and all that's before lunch …"

* * *

><p>AN: Here is where we need some viewer support. Need some suggestions and preferences for the school the girls will attend. It should be somewhere they can pass with little attention paid to their oddity and possibly somewhere where magic is part of the setting. It should also be somewhere that is actually a primary school. Apart from that crossovers are good, I will know the setting and be able to write it. But none of the school's plot will influence the story, it will either be over or happen away from the events Shanghai, Hourai and Ranma are involved in, thus i will use it only to inform the supporting cast and setting.

Current suggestions (with current votes): Mahora (1 vote), Tomoeda (0 votes), Mugen (0 votes)


	3. Dojo and Hospital

Ranma and his girls skipped along the fenceline, he smirked faintly while they hopped across the road and back, from fence to fance, playing chasies. Martial arts apparently agreed with them because they were in a state of near constant excitement all morning.

As it turned out their coordination was so-so, their hand to hand training non-existent and their physical conditioning perhaps slightly better than any other child their age … well Ranma hadn't decided yet what their age actually was, given that their mental age was apparently a bit higher than their physical age. Certainly they seemed better conditioned than the average kindergartener. But as he had suspected, they could use magic to supplement their abilities the way he used ki, as well as firing tiny, short ranged balls of light that hurt less than a pinprick but could be shot off in enough numbers to make you feel like you'd fallen into a rosebush. In the end they would have given him a run for his money when he was ten or twelve, provided they didn't bust out the actual spells they knew.

The insisted on calling them spell cards, even though Ranma never saw any evidence of an actual card, and each had one. Shanghai's was called the little legion and could manifest a small army of dolls that were each armed with primitive and painful looking weapons and fight with their aid for nearly two minutes before she fell down from the exhaustion of channelling so much magic. Hourai's item was called Hakkero, it was apparently the very device used to turn them from dolls into people in the first place and on understanding its purpose Ranma would not have been surprised if that was considered a simple task for it, the palm sized brassy hexagon boosted Hourai's magic the way Gekkaja had boosted Ranma's cold ki. So far all Hourai knew how to do with it was pump out all her magic in one huge multi-coloured beam she called a 'spark' type spell. Ranma was already planning a moukou takabisha spark in his head as he walked.

Apparently the Yukari person they kept referring to had given each of them one of their mothers' tools so they would have something for self-defence. Ranma had no idea what the boarder of self and weapon was but whatever she had done to it seemed to function like the hidden weapons technique, but only for the one item. He idly wondered if the mysterious Yukari would come to check on them and if she could be convinced to do the same for some of his treasures. The Kinjakan and Gekkaja, was well as the nanban mirror and a handful of other troublesome artefacts had all vanished from play lately and Ranma just knew they would appear again if someone capable of pickpocketing his hidden weapons space realised where he had stashed them.

Ranma also wondered if his girl form could learn some of the basics of magic the way his girls used it. If he could really fly like they said their mothers could, or indeed the twins seemed to be getting close to, just imagine the revolution in Saotome style aerial combat.

But with his mind on so many distractions at once it was only a matter of time before a giggling Hourai pushed him hard off the fence. When she surfaced in the canal she could hear Hourai giggling loudly over Shanghai's own nervous chuckles.

"You know girls," Ranma hopped gracefully onto the fence between them, "the reason you're wearing your training gear even though we're going to see my mum," she snagged the suddenly fleeing girls by the collars easily, "is just in case of times like this," and threw the pair of them into the canal she had just vacated.

* * *

><p>With a pair of giggling daughters over her shoulders Ranma touched down in her mother's front yard, she couldn't help giggling a little breathlessly herself, smiling as she saw the Saotome matriarch enjoying tea nearby on the veranda. Inside Ranma was frozen with terror, he'd never appeared quite that casually in his cursed form since she found out about it, and certainly tried never to appear to be enjoying it. Completely unsure of how to act at the moment Ranma defaulted to confidence and waved casually, asking if her teapot still held hot water as casually as she could.<p>

Male again, and with the twins distracted playing with some toys Nodoka had apparently kept since he and Genma left on their training journey, Ranma was able to ride a wave of relief from his earlier panic over the top of his nervousness about asking his mother if her previous offer of financial support still stood.

"Oh Ranma, of course it does, you're my son," Nodoka replied mater of factly, placing a small tray of senbei next to the fresh cups of tea, "So does this mean you've found a house that you really like now?"

"Um … not really. Actually I figured I'd need help getting Shanghai and Hourai into school. I'm not even sure what age human child they are equivalent to. But then I realised that if I wanted a place of my own it would have to be big enough for them too and even if Akane does move in with me and help, we cant afford that without outside help so…"

"Well why not send them to the elementary section at Mahora?"

"What?" Ranma looked puzzled, "Mahora has an elementary section?"

"Of course it does, didn't they show you on the open day?"

"Um … not really, just the university campus took all day," Ranma scratched the back of his head self-consciously, "someone did mention a Mahora highschool and it being an elevator school or somethin'. But … I don't wanna just send them there 'cause it's near where I'm going, I wanna send 'em somewhere really good you know? An' it's gotta be somewhere they can try to be normal kids or where they wont get picked on if everyone finds out about their magic,"

"Of course dear. That is one of the reasons I recommended you attend Mahora in the first place. Actually, if your father hadn't taken you on that training journey you would have gone to Mahora elementary too,"

"I would have?"

"Oh yes dear, the dean of Maohora is a family friend, something about my father and he being rivals when they were young," Nodoka waved an hand dismissively, "and I'm told he always strives to make the academy a suitable learning environment for those who have … well … non-standard abilities … magic and such, as well as ki-enhanced martial arts. If I'd been able to convince your father to challenge some of the staff he might not have felt he needed to take you away…"

As Nodoka gazed into the distance in wistful introspection Ranma decided to at least add Mahora to the candidates list. He also somehow intuited that asking his mother for alternatives – just in case he couldn't get the girls into Mahora, after all he had barely managed to get himself in – right now would be met with blind insistence that there was nowhere else they could go.

"Alright, can you arrange an application for the girls then? We'll have to get moving quickly on this if we want them in for the new school year," _and we'll have to find out whether the application will fail or not as soon as possible if I want to convince you to have an alternative option. _Ranma kept his polite smile and finished his tea.

"Alright, I was plannin' to look at some bigger houses this afternoon. Would you like to come? I still cant get Akane to decide if she wants to move in with us or not and I sure cant get her to even think of coming to look at houses. But with the girls I think I will just have to get a house that's big enough for her to live with us when she eventually decides to,"

"What do you mean? I'll be arranging a meeting with Konoe-sensei to discuss your daughter's enrolment anyway, I'm sure we can talk about family accommodation on campus for you. And as you will be accepting my help in this you wont have to look for somewhere cheaper off campus because of the cost,"

Ranma's mind slowed to a halt. A meeting with Konoe-sensei? As in the dean? There was no way Ranma would be meeting with the dean. The head of a school the size of Mahora had to be an incredibly busy man. On average a student could expect to even _see_ the dean twice, from a crowded hall, at their welcoming and graduation ceremonies. His mother was just going to arrange a meeting?

* * *

><p>Ranma bit down hard on the urge to grumble. Nothing ever went his way. His mother had taken the girls for the afternoon and evening so he could work, and he had honestly expected that time in the dojo at least would relax him and let him get his mind off the fact that he apparently had a meeting with the dean of Mahora tomorrow at 11. Among other things.<p>

As it turned out, and as always for Ranma, when it rains it pours. The status of the art as his sanctuary in times of stress was under assault from his duty as a martial artist again tonight; and it was a duty that he found particularly repellent. He was about to beat up, and probably injure, a perfectly honourable martial artist who happened to be significantly weaker than him. Hell, he was about to render one of his own students incapable of training for at least a week. Not for misuse of the art or betraying the code of honour the dojo upheld even.

When master Misono told him that one of the second dans from his training group wanted to enter some pit fights for extra money and real battle experience Ranma hadn't made the connection at first. He's started plotting out training plans and ideas to get the guy ready. It took nearly a full minute to occur to him what the old master was truly asking him to do.

"This is your chance to back down Taka. You're a martial artist, sure, and not one of those soft 'martial sportsmen'. Our training is more brutal and we don't have the stupid tournament hangups about where to hit and scoring points and whatever. But we do still have honour and personal justice,"

Taka just stood there with his expression fixed in a determined scowl so Ranma continued, "At the very least some of the people you're looking to fight don't Taka. There are going to be people there as strong as you, as fast as you and as well trained as you who are a dozen times over more brutal and willing to hurt their opponent to win than you are. People who have reached quite a high level in a real art and then put aside whatever honour they had to grow that ruthlessness that lets them keep winning in the pit. If you want real battle experience I'd really prefer you head out and challenge a few dozen dojos first man,"

Taka just stared unflinching as Ranma's reasoning fell on deaf ears. Ranma gave one last warning, "Pay close attention here Taka. I'm going to fight at your level, I wont move faster than I've seen you move. I wont hit harder than I've seen you hit. I wont use any technique you don't know. I'm just going to turn up the brutality and underhandedness to match what I've seen in pit fights ok?"

Ranma might have wanted to say more, keep trying to convince his student. But every drop of pity and concern fell off his face in an instant and he was moving as soon as master Misono called for the match to start.

"Begin,"

To his credit Taka didn't waste time bowing or shaping up or even taking a formal stance, he immediately slid a step back and into active defence. While it was a point in his favour Ranma didn't bother to count it, he was already inside the second dan's guard, surprising him with a simple bull rush as soon as the match began. His first punch was deflected but the Musabetsu school was all about adaptation and the second dan was in no position to deal with the shoulder than buried deep into his sternum when Ranma simply continued to charge.

From that point it was essentially over. When Taka's eyes involuntarily winced closed, Ranma already had him grappled by both shoulders with a knee in his back by the time he had regained focus. By the time Taka had broken the grip on his left shoulder Ranma had dislocated his right. When Taka somehow managed to turn and raise his guard in spite of that pain Ranma simply delivered a meaty slap behind his ear. With his balance shot completely by the compression of his inner ear Taka desperately forced his watering eyes to see and give his brain some metric to work his balance by, Ranma just drove his fingers into a pressure point.

Ranma's pressure point of choice was the saliva glands, fully compressing them he filled Taka's mouth with the hormones they contained. It was about a second before they made their way from the mouth to the digestive tract, suddenly the chemical signals that would tell Taka he was hungry were active in thousands of times greater quantity than they would ever be in normal life. His stomach tightened and flip-flopped and nausea gripped him. That quantity would take a week or two to purge enough from his system that he would be able to function normally. Combined with the disorientation caused by his lost balance Taka was near vomiting from the nausea. Master Misono called it.

"Break. Victory – Ranma,"

Ranma's face softened to its normal expression as he knelt down and spoke, not unkindly, "I don't mean to stop you Taka. By all means get out there and fight for real, you wont master the art if you don't take and give some real beatings. But I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I let you go out there without knowing what you're putting yourself up against,"

Taka simply struggled to his knees despite his total loss of equilibrium and bowed in thanks as best he could. Ranma's face curled a little in self disgust that his art could require such distasteful actions, as a kindness no less, against someone he considered a friend. Ranma just hoped Taka learned the lesson he was teaching here, but went out to fight anyway, real experience was what he needed after all.

* * *

><p>"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die," Ranma just smiled faintly as Ryoga's casual kick bounced harmlessly off his thigh. The first time that happened Ranma had nearly panicked; Ryoga making a joke of his normal battle cry? Let alone such a self-deprecating one. Hospital apparently agreed with the lost boy. Ranma placed another batch of presents on the table.<p>

"Hey pork for brains. Akari sent some flowers by the dojo for ya, said she couldn't visit herself until Katsunishiki's title defence bout is over. Blue 'bento is from Akane, she says she's sorry about your arm and she hopes you get well soon, but she doesn't forgive you. Brown 'bento is from Kasumi so it's safe to eat,"

Akane had finally found out about Ryoga's Jusenkyo curse and she had gone, quite rightly both boys admitted, berserk. For the most part her beatings to the pair of them had been healed in a matter of days, as usual, except Ryoga's arm. By luck or design, once her rage retreated even Akane wasn't sure, Ryoga's left arm was a mess of complex spiral fractures that even Cologne couldn't just heal with a bit of ki, at least not straight.

But Tofu had the answer apparently – modern medicine. The day before surgeons had cut open Ryoga's upper arm and fished out the various muscle and ligament graft points and screwed them onto a titanium frame, then simply discarded the rest of the bone as unrecoverable. His lower arm was still like a bag of gravel, but once the incisions healed and he recovered from the blood loss of the first surgery that would be fixed too. With Ryoga's ki healing speeding that up he could probably be going back into the OR in two-three days.

"So whats new on the outside?"

Ranma took the seat next to the bed and marshalled his thoughts, Akari had been tied up with a major tournament when Ryoga was admitted and was just now finishing it up. That meant that apart from Tofu and Cologne accompanying him when he was admitted and one visit from Kasumi Ranma was the only person Ryoga had seen in days who wasn't hospital staff. Normally being alone wasn't a bother to the lost boy, but knowing his own directional problems he had confined himself to bed and was near going mad from boredom.

"Not much really. I think 'Kane's gonna wanna get her own place when we move out for collage. I gave in and took mum up on her offer to help me pay tuition and stuff,"

"Hah, lose your job and cant afford it anymore Ranma?" Ranma let the jab slide past, the heat just wasn't in it. With Ryoga so subdued in the hospital none of his threats or insults had any bite. Calmed down like this Ranma could acknowledge, to himself if never aloud, that Ryoga was as much his friend as Ukyo was when she took the day off from fiancé mode.

"I've got two daughters to take care of now,"

Ranma's statement stopped Ryoga's taunt cold. His eyes went wide and then his gaze softened.

"Um … wow. Akane's pregnant? I didn't even realise you two had … how long have you known?"

"What? No they're not Akane's"

"Ranma! If you've been …" all of a sudden the old fire was back in Ryoga and he struggled into striking distance with his one good arm.

"Whoa, calm down piggy. They're adopted ok? Their real parents went to some war and they're missing in action," Ryoga took a deep breath and sat back onto his bed, confusion setting in, "They got a bit of a condition and they need magic to stay alive. Apparently my curse form has plenty of magic so they've locked on to that and now they need me to care for them,"

"I think you'd better start this from the top Ranma. It sounds a lot like the first thing I'm doing when I get out of her is beating you to hell and back for hurting Akane,"

"Um … ok. Well I suppose it's still an hour before I have to be ready for my night job. Ok, so these two girls…"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So the winner is Mahora. By fewer votes than i expected. To everyone who asked what was the point if which school it was wouldnt effect the story - which school he goes to will effect the story, just that none of my characters will be taking part in cannon events at those schools.

With Mahora having won the setting is thus - negima canon is over (this implies also that the events of ranma half happened later on too, no 80's paraphernalia here) but only just. negi is off with Ayaka and chachamaru meeting international dignitaries to arrange for the terraforming of mars project and his students have all finished secondary schooling (Except eva who started again, no curse breaking for you :P)

To the guy who was sad to see Gensokyo dying - it isnt. the current unrest is just part of the cycle of human and youkai dominance that Yukari talks about in Cage in Lunatic Runagate.

Although Gensokyo _is_ in a lot of trouble. Anyone who knows what the Hakurei border is actually the border _of_ can probably guess what i have planned to result from negi's planned international revealing of magic.

Lastly to Abyssal demon, who said this;

"Normally I wouldn't mention anything but this happens to be a old pet peeve; there's no such thing as Jubben district in Tokyo. What you're thinking of is the Minato Ward."

I reply - Juuban (Not Jubben) is a common shortening of Azabu-Juban. Which is a district of Minato ward.

Also - If you want to make such problematic claims turn on PMs so I can reply you coward.


	4. Scolarships and other enticements

Ranma shifted her weight back and away from the attempted shield bash from, what she now recognised as, a 'chalk white Russian doll'. Where her louder sister would have used that frustrating smirk on Mama's face to drive her next flurry of blows even faster with greater focus, Shanghai instead internalised the annoyance, thought faster and harder and came back with a new attack pattern she was sure would trap her target. Ranma just smiled and slipped sideways, body passing parallel to the floor to make it unscathed through the pincer assault of the Orleans, Kyoto and London dolls. Now outside the small cloud of armed dolls Ranma took an instant to check on Hourai's training while Shanghai desperately tried to drag her dolls back into position while slipping in for her own direct attack.

When Akane had asked to join morning practice Ranma had been a little worried she would hurt the girls. Then he had scolded himself bitterly, no matter how angry she got he had never seen Akane launch an attack at someone that wasn't at their level. She and Hourai were sparring fluidly and at blistering speed, but Akane was being careful to outpace the tiny girl only just by enough for her to learn from.

Ranma turned back to her other daughter in time to dodge the renewed assault. Shanghai was tiring, already into the later half of her second minute using that spell card, but as long as she wasn't totally exhausted the tiny girl seemed determined to keep fighting as hard as she possibly could. Given how many of his past fights had unfolded, Ranma secretly suspected that was the real key to being a great martial artist. But she still flawlessly dodged the renewed assault with that infuriating smile on her face.

Ranma knew that Akane was trying, in her own way, to apologise and admit, possibly to herself, that if she wanted their love to work out she needed to accept Ranma's daughters as her own. That's not to say that he expected anything would be resolved now, or that she wouldn't still get angry at him before they decided their final living arrangements. Or even that she was more likely to end up living with them now than on her own. But it was a step.

Seeing her daughter begin to waver as the strain of her spell card mounted Ranma called for her to stop. She was in her female form this morning so it wasn't as though Shanghai had run out of magic to draw on; it more seemed that drawing large bursts like Hourai did in combat or a constant stream the way Shanghai did with her spell card active made the girls tired even as it refilled them magically. Ranma herself could feel the magnitude of the energy they took from her in those circumstances; it was no small amount, nearly as much as a good fight with Ryoga or Mouse if he were to equate it to his ki, yet even with both drawing on him he never felt close to exhausting that energy. In fact it seemed to refill at a faster rate than they, together, could empty it from some source outside him. But when he tried to trace it the direction he was being filled from was 'everywhere'.

The redhead smiled and tousled her daughter's hair a little, something she found she loved doing as much as having tousled hair annoyed them, "See? You're doing well. Now go cool down with Akane a bit and send your sister over to practice her spell card,"

Shanghai turned up her nose and walked away, smoothing down her hair and using her pout to hide the wide grin praise from Mama brought to her face. Ranma nearly giggled at how adorable the tiny white gi made her daughters, she didn't actually giggle of course she wouldn't be able to look her male form in the eye in the mirror if she did. She was glad her mother had had a box of his old clothing that would fit them, even if the girliest items in there were at best unisex. The clothing the two arrived in was magically self-repairing and self-cleaning whenever they took them off to bathe but that didn't mean pants weren't a much more practical choice for training.

Hourai came barrelling into Ranma's waist at ridiculous speed almost as soon as Shanghai announced they were trading off. Her mouth was set in a huge grin and she was practically vibrating with excitement as she shifted her grip to drag her Mama impatiently behind her out of the dojo to the chunk of stone set up as a target in the back yard. Yesterday when Ranma had first witnessed Hourai's passion for her destructive magic Shanghai had commented that she took after Mama like that. First she had wondered which of the two mothers Hourai was taking after, but then she realised that she didn't know enough about either to make the distinction anyway. Ranma privately wondered what it would be like to meet the two sorceresses who gave birth to her two little girls.

Hourai took her place at the firing line as Ranma dipped a bucket of water from the pond. Upending the bucket over the large stone target, Ranma momentarily submerged herself deep within the soul of ice, coating the rock in a thick layer of ice.

"Ok, just like yesterday, try and knock as much off as you can,"

Taking a deep breath the tiny blonde turned dead serious and line up her shot, "Love sign [Lesser Spark]," Hourai always spoke the actual name of her spellcard quietly. She had confessed to Ranma that she was embarrassed because, although it was technically identical to the spell card named master spark, it was simply tiny compared to her Mama's spell. Hourai wanted to be able to call it master spark but still refused to use the name until hers could match that memory. Ranma just privately hoped that his daughters would still respect their power that way when they were grown and had a lot of it.

The multi-coloured beam that erupted from the reactor in Hourai's hand was perhaps as wide as one of 'grandpa Saotome's fists. As the day before the beam didn't seem to have any heat to it, certainly none of the ice was melted away, but it struck with enough force to crack the ice and send chips flying. As Hourai bit her lower lip and held the beam in place Ranma observed carefully, the ice chips kept flying, indicating that the beam was less like a constant force being applied to crush the target and more like a stream of water or a sand blaster. Hourai's grimace of concentration just deepened as she shifted the beam around to blast more ice off the target, evidently maintaining a constant stream while adjusting aim was a very taxing task.

Ranma quietly considered how he would go about doing the same with ki. As well as worrying about how exactly they would train her ability once she was strong enough to damage the stone too.

* * *

><p>Just meeting Konoe-sensei was enlightening for Ranma. It was his first time seeing the dean of Mahora in the flesh and he could already appreciate everything his mother said about the school being a good place for martial artists and wizards alike. The dean felt truly ancient and was obviously something like a grandmaster, the respect and acknowledgement Happosai and Cologne had each needed to beat into him came instantly with Konoe-sensei's mere presence. Ranma wondered if he would ever get a chance to fight him.<p>

As his mother finished up the introductions Ranma realised that, even if his mother and daughters hadn't noticed, the aged master had certainly picked up on his thoughts. The old man just chuckled but Ranma still glanced down in embarrassment.

"Very well, let's all have a seat. Why don't we start with laying out the exact problem that needs this meeting," Konoe-sensei's eyes were locked on Ranma, he obviously had a good idea of the situation from his discussion with Nodoka and his own observations of the twins, so he apparently wanted it summed up in Ranma's words.

"Um … well. Basic'ly since Shanghai and Hourai joined our family we need to get a lot of stuff done for the new school year, and on way too short notice to do it without help,"

"I see, yes … And I noticed your mother calls Shangai and Hourai your daughters Ranma, yet given their age, relative to your own, and the fact that they have apparently joined your family quite suddenly I gather they are adopted yes? Why have you adopted them and not allowed your more financially secure parents to take them in as your sisters?"

"Ahhm, So that's part of why I want them to go to Mahora elementary. See, they're both really magical, but they were born somewhere with a lot more magic than here and unless someone feeds them they wont be able to get enough magic here to survive until they're fully grown. That, and, well, they refuse to treat anyone except the person whose magic they are being fed by as their parents so…"

"But Ranma, I can see quite clearly you don't have the magic talent to feed them,"

Before Ranma could think through a reply Hourai rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, "We get our magic from Mama, not Papa," as though that explained everything.

"Hmm, you mean your fiancé?" The old dean began sifting through the files laid in front of him for the meeting, "Our files say Akane Tendo has, if anything, _less_ indication of magical talent than you, though she is a skilled martial artist in her own right,"

"Ew not Akane, she said mean things when we came,"

"What? Then who is …?" suddenly the Dean flipped back a few pages in the top file, apparently Ranma's, "Oh I see, Jusenkyo…"

As everyone froze dead still Konoe Konoemon suddenly realised he had said that aloud.

"Ahh yes … you see Ranma I haven't been entirely honest with you. Mahora actually has quite the vested interest in you, so we know a little more than we let on,"

"You've been investigating me?" Ranma was stunned.

"Well, since the battles at mount Hourai and Jusendo, yes. Before that we were more just … on the lookout, for someone of your talents. You see Ranma, in about five to ten years we are going to need some heroes. Not for a war or something," the headmaster was quick to assure, "But heroes who have already established legends we can point to and say 'here, look at how great this person is'; and the heroes we need are the very best martial artists and mages. We have plenty of heroes of course, dragon slayers and demon hunters and revolutionaries who saved whole countries from evil men. We have mage heroes and we have martial artist heroes, we have heroes born to the magical world and heroes born here in the old world. But all of our heroes have performed their great heroic acts in the magical world. Between defeating the half-dragon Musk prince and stopping the rampage of something so dangerous as an imperfectly reborn phoenix you are prime hero material and by far the biggest hero currently living whose exploits exist entirely within this world and not the magical world,"

"So … what? You want me for a band of figure heads you can parade around to inspire students with or something?"

"It's much more than that Ranma. Just please hear the full explanation before you leave. We have already been putting together a huge scholarship package for you and miss Tendo if you should agree to help with our plan, you see …"

"He wants to reveal magic to the whole world Ranma," It was like a moment of whiplash as everyone turned to face the new voice, coming from a corner of the office that had been empty before, "He wants to take martial artists like you and other people with unusual abilities and wave them around in front of everyone else who doesn't have any of those talents or skills,"

The dean and Nodoka stared in shock at the new arrival, while the twins were on their feet and charging toward her with open arms and huge smiles, soothed by his daughters' trust Ranma relaxed and instead took in the newcomer's appearance. The first thing he noticed was that she was tall, taller than his male form, and wore a ruffled white cap over bound blonde hair. Her dress was all white frills and billows except for a purple band extending from her bodice down her front and back, it bore some hexagrams he had encountered in China as some sort of divination system, but which meant nothing to him. She held in one hand one of those frilly umbrellas that people used in the sun, which Ranma had never really understood. Her eyes, however, were as true gold and shone in the indoor lighting.

In the instant she appeared a girl of perhaps ten, with long blonde hair lurched from the shadow of a chair nearby and leapt at the woman with the parasol. Her face was all an aloof smirk, but her hands were curled into vicious claws which crackled with the energy Ranma was coming to identify as magic. Then she was gone, just like that, as though the older woman were actually a portal to another dimension the blonde attacker simply vanished into her as the first blow landed.

"Your pet vampire is certainly brave headmaster, close to the full moon as we are she still cannot hope to inconvenience me until it is actually in the sky. Don't worry, she is fine. Normally I would have Ran restrain her so you could see it, while Chen went to guard the door against your other protectors. But of course with young Ranma's neko-ken I simply couldn't bring Chen here. So Ran will be keeping Takamichi and any other ill-timed guardians from interrupting our meeting today," The girls, who had latched themselves onto the woman in a tight, but brief hug visibly slumped at the news that this Chen person would not be appearing.

"And who, exactly, are you?" Dean Konoe was tense, he was ready for battle and surprised at the newcomer's presence so greatly that Ranma could tell his slip in composure was genuine.

Patting the twins' heads affectionately the mystery woman sauntered forward, toward a chair that no one could quite recall coming from anywhere, despite there being exactly enough chairs for the meeting in front of the Dean's desk immediately before that instant, "In terms that have meaning to you … it would not be inexact to say that I am something like your 'mage of the beginning'. You may call me Yakumo Yukari if you wish to maintain the polite fiction you were simply asking my name,"

"You're the one who sent the girls to Tokyo in the first place," Ranma made the connection right away to the 'miss Yukari' the girls reported sending them here and arming them with their mothers' weapons. He also remembered that both his daughters were sure she was other than the human she appeared. Which firmed Ranma's need to have his second question answered, "What do you mean 'like the mage of the beginning'?"

Whatever manner of creature she was, Yakumo Yukari smiled urbanely and inclined her head in confirmation, "Indeed I am Saotome. As to the mage of the beginning, he was an ancient and powerful wizard, of course, but his fame derives from the fact that he essentially created the world that Konoemon is talking about when he says 'the magical world'. It's a bit like a second world that is more magical than the real world and exists a bit like a reflection of a real place. His magical world 'mundus magicus' is by far and away the largest such world, being the magical reflection of all of the planet Mars. But it is far from the only one,"

Ranma's mind put two and two together as quickly as it only ever managed when something important was going on, usually a fight, but sometimes the events leading up to a fight too, "So you're the creator of another of these places? That's what you mean by 'like the mage of the beginning' right? The place Shanghai and Hourai are from is one of these reflections of th' real world and you're the creator,"

"Oh, very close Ranma, very close. But where mundus magicus is literally the size of mars, my Gensokyo is slightly less than the size of Tokyo. Although Gensokyo is rather more intensely magical, almost exactly as much magic exists in all of Gensokyo as exists in all of the magical world. Which is rather the problem here," the woman made a put upon gesture and slumped a little theatrically in her seat, "you see the reason some other worlds can contain so much more magic than the magical world is that the magical world is the magical reflection of a physical place, where other realms are the reflection of ideas, heaven, hell, dozens of afterlives, and so on. But Gensokyo is more special and strange again, it is a physical place, an actual geographic location transformed into the reflection of an idea. The common idea that magic is simply a story,"

Ranma was stunned as he tried to process all this revelation, his daughters were content to climb back into his lap and snuggle into his chest, ignoring the boringly complex adult conversations. Nodoka was simply lost, but restrained herself to silently observing the conversation. The dean alone had enough knowledge of magic and it's workings to follow the implications of that tale.

"You are saying that our plan to reveal magic to the world will return your Gensokyo to reality? And you want to stop us? I am afraid that you do not know the whole story, you see…"

"Be at peace dean of Mahora. I know you need to reveal magic in order for the great cooperation you are planning between magic and science to have even a chance of saving the citizens of your magical world before it's magic runs out and it is destroyed," Konoemon looked momentarily confused, before opening his mouth to ask the obvious question, and again being interrupted, "ejecting Gensokyo into reality will actually solve a lot of my problems. The war between humans and youkai will have no choice but to end in the face of the sudden change, I wont have to appoint a new Hakurei maiden from an ever decreasing pool of worthy candidates and if I can capitulate and let a certain invading goddess take over Gensokyo at just the right time I may even be able to trap her church and priestesses on the not real side of the border for a few millennia of peace. I have come to warn you of the problems that will arise when you do this."

"Tengu and kappa and all manner of youkai will return to the world, not just the magical races and demons of mundus magicus, but all the magical races of old, as they appear in the stories. Mount Hourai will return, not the petty mundane reflection which Ranma here destroyed, the true to myth, teeming with fantastic beasts, jewelled branch of Hourai at the top, hermit who knows the secret of the elixir of immortality in a cave, impossible requests of Kaguya-hime mythic version, and it will be a place anyone can reach just by travelling to it. A lot of mythic locations like that will return actually, Sakuya-hime's shrine, the palace of the dragon king and so forth. But the most dire consequence is that Gensokyo has a number of connections. Places where one can simply travel, without some transition of state or potent magic, often just by walking or climbing, to other realms which are the reflections of ideas. The hells, we actually have immigration from the hell of blazing fires these days, the Sanzu river, the garden of the sun, the realm of dreams, the afterlife, the realms of the divine. All sorts of places will have suddenly easy access from the Earth, and a lot of them will be unhappy about that,"

For a moment the vital blonde woman looked as ancient as she surely must be as the creator of the realm of Gensokyo, "When one realm in particular takes objection to their new connection to Earth they are likely to remain in a state of war against you until such time as they are able to cut off the link permanently. When that happens Ranma and his daughters will be very important to the battle. So I'm actually here to help ensure Ranma _does_ sign on at your school,"

Perky and mischevious as she had begun the woman smirked ar Ranma, all knowingly, "Ranma Saotome, in addition to whatever the school of Mahora offers you, if you agree to aid in their plan to reveal magic to the world I will bind all of the magical devices you hide to your person so that the Jouketsuzoku cannot take them and add their chaos to your life,"

Ranma's face almost folded in on itself after a moment of excitement as suspicion set in, after all he had literally thought of how he wanted that just a day prior. But the woman simply laughed her laugh like trickling stream.

"Oh dear, no Ranma, I am neither reading your mind nor putting thoughts into it. It is simply that you are only human that allows me to match your desires so closely,"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> Well that update took forever and a bit. it will also likely be the last one until i get back from tokyo in june. And before you ask, yes of course Yukari has something in mind she isnt telling us about, shes yukari, remember how the second lunar war went? Yeah shes that xanos-y


End file.
